M C I L Journal
				MCIL Journal 2007
				MCIL Journal 2006
				MCIL Journal Index

The Memphis Center for
Independent Living Journal

Index
of previous MCIL Journals

3/30/99, 6:11 amcst

Are people in nursing homes "homeless?"

The question becomes more complicated when you look to apply the definition of homelessness provided by HUD. The answer, however, remains the same. For many people with disabilities placed in nursing homes because there are no personal attendant services, the institution is defined as a home.

It is a subtle irony that these institutions are often referred to as "the Home." William Scanlon, director of health financing and systems issues for the U.S. General Accounting Office, testified before a Senate panel in July. "Homes can repeatedly harm residents without facing sanctions." Examine the HUD definition of homeless. Are people inappropriately institutionalized homeless?

"Homeless" Defined

In the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, the legislation which created a series of targeted homeless assistance programs, the Federal Government defined "homeless" to mean:

1. An individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence; and;

2. An individual who has a primary night-time residency that is:
   1. A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill);

   2. An institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or

   3. A public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

3. This term does not include any individual imprisoned or otherwise detained under an Act of Congress or a State law.

People who are at imminent risk of losing their housing, because they are being evicted from private dwelling units or are being discharged from institutions and have nowhere else to go, are usually considered to be homeless for program eligibility purposes.

Update!
4-5-99

Nationwide Study Available on Internet Says Americans with Disabilities Face Serious Housing Crisis

Contact:
Ann O'hare, 617/742-5657
Kathy McGinley, 202/785-3388

(WASHINGTON, D.C., April 5) In every state across the country, people with disabilities face an affordable housing crisis. This crisis is the direct result of both the actions and inactions of the federal government, and the unwillingness of many local and state housing officials to acknowledge or address the housing needs of people with disabilities.

The Technical Assistance Collaborative Inc. (TAC) and the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Housing Task Force just published a compelling report detailing the housing situation facing people with disabilities. Priced Out in 1998: The Housing Crisis for People with Disabilities, available at the website for Opening Doors, a publication on housing advocacy (http://www.c-c-d.org/doors.html), explores the extent of this problem particularly for people with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

The report uses the federal housing affordability standard for very low income households which suggests that no more than 30% of monthly income should be spent on housing. In 1998 the federal SSI program provided an individual with a disability a monthly income of $494. Based on that figure, Priced Out documents that in every state and major housing market area people with disabilities receiving SSI benefits were "priced out" of the market -- unable to afford a modest efficiency or one bedroom apartment.

In addition to findings at the national level, Priced Out also includes geographically specific income and housing cost data for people with disabilities receiving SSI in each of the 2,646 housing market areas of the United States.

According to the report, individuals receiving SSI are among the lowest income households in the country. Compared to the hourly minimum wage of $5.15, the SSI monthly benefit is equal to $3.09 per hour. Other alarming findings are:

• The national average income of an individual with a disability receiving SSI is only 24.4 percent of the typical one-person income in a community.

• The average cost nationally of a one-bedroom apartment is 69 percent of SSI monthly income and more than a person's total monthly SSI income in 125 housing market areas of the country. Clearly, without affordable housing, people with disabilities continue to live at home with aging parents, in crowded homeless shelters, in institutions or nursing homes, or are forced to choose between seriously substandard housing or paying most of their monthly income for rent.

The report recommends that the federal, state and local policymakers refocus their housing policies, programs and resources to ensure that people with disabilities, do not continue to be "priced out" of the housing market. Find Priced Out and more valuable information on affordable housing issues at the Opening Doors website at http://www.c-c-d.org/doors.html. Visit the TAC website at http://www.tacinc.org and the CCD Housing Task Force website at http://www.c-c-d.org/housing.html.

The Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-6404 v/tty (901) 726-6521 fax
mcil@mcil.org 

MCIL is a United Way of the Mid-South member Agency

Return to the top of this page

MCIL would like feedback on the accessibility of this website.  Please send your comments and concerns to webmaster@mcil.org

© 2006 Tim Wheat